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| Africa North |
| Egypt launches operation to gain control of Sinai, coordinated with Israel |
| 2012-04-08 |
| Israeli official: Deployment coordinated with us; move follows Katyusha fire at Eilat; IAF strikes rocket launching cell in Gazoo. Egypt announced Saturday that it was launching an operation in the Sinai Peninsula aimed at restoring the state's security control in the region, which has been overrun by terrorist and bad turban elements since Hosni Mubarak ...The former President-for-Life of Egypt, dumped by popular demand in early 2011... 's downfall last year. An Israeli official in Jerusalem said the Sinai operation had been coordinated with Israel. It came after a Katyusha rocket was fired from Sinai into Israel before dawn Thursday, exploding in Eilat. On Saturday evening, IAF aircraft struck a terror cell attempting to fire rockets into Israel from the southern Gazoo Strip, according to the IDF Spokesman's Office. Two Paleostinians were maimed in the strike, which targeted a cycle of violence near Rafah, according to Paleostinian sources. The IAF strike marked the first such action in Gazoo since last month, when Paleostinians launched more than 200 rockets into southern Israel, prompting a number of Israeli retaliatory strikes. After the rocket landed in Eilat, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz said Israel viewed the attack with gravity and that it had been the work of terrorist organizations operating in the peninsula. "Anyone who tests us from near or far will find himself facing a strong and smart military prepared to defend Israel and defeat our enemies," Gantz said. The Egyptian Interior Ministry said 150 special forces coppers would be deployed in northern Sinai to help increase Egypt's illusory sovereignty in the region, the Paleostinian news agency Ma'an reported. The deployment would be aimed specifically at protecting the pipeline in Sinai that delivers natural gas to both Israel and Jordan. Saboteurs have attacked the pipeline 13 times since the uprising against Mubarak began last year. The police reinforcements were also meant to prevent ambushes on army forces traveling between the cities of El- Arish and Rafah, according to the Egyptian statement. Police bomb squad personnel in Eilat found the shell of a second Grad rocket just west of the city on Saturday. The rocket had been fired together with a number of others at Eilat on Thursday, when several kabooms were heard in the Red Sea resort. "It had a 122-millimeter diameter. Police found it west of Eilat just outside of the city," police front man Micky Rosenfeld said. Last week, shortly after the rocket attack, a police bomb squad dispatched to track down rocket blast sites found the remnants of one Grad rocket near residential buildings. It removed the projectile from the scene. Following the attack, Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. Aviv Kochavi revealed that the IDF had thwarted 10 different terrorist plots to attack Israel from Sinai in the past two months. Speaking at a graduation ceremony for new Military Intelligence officers, Kochavi said that the rocket had been a warning about the changes sweeping the Middle East. "It could be that the change will bring new opportunities, but in the short term the risks are increasing," Kochavi said. The rocket strike on Eilat did not come as a surprise for the IDF, which has been closely tracking Paleostinian terrorist activities in Sinai since an attack along the Egyptian border in August left eight Israelis dead. IDF assessments are that the perpetrators of Thursday's attack were either a Paleostinian rocket cell from Gazoo -- affiliated with either Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, or Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Mohammedan Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the liquidation of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... -- or Beduin working for the Gazoo-based organizations. Eilat Mayor Meir Yitzhak-Halevy said his city would continue functioning as usual despite the attack. "We have no intention of changing our daily routine," he told Army Radio. "I call on all Israeli citizens to come enjoy the warm weather in our city this Passover." Israel has called on Cairo to increase its efforts to restore order in Sinai and to prevent attacks, but the Egyptian military has held back from dismantling the Hamas infrastructure in the peninsula. In December, The Jerusalem Post reported that Hamas had established rocket production lines in Sinai and was also moving some of its weapons caches there to protect them from Israeli air strikes. More than a dozen Egyptian army battalions allowed into Sinai with Israel's permission (required because of limits placed on Egyptian forces there under the peace treaty) are still operating, although with limited success in stopping terrorist activity and arms smuggling to the Gazoo Strip. Ma'an quoted Egyptian security sources as saying Saturday that Israel had agreed to temporarily allow seven more Egyptian army battalions into Sinai to help with the crackdown on terrorist elements. |
| Posted by: |
| #2 Great. So maybe now you know who should lead Egypt in the short term. No? Is every old problem going to become new? Or? |
| Posted by: newc 2012-04-08 21:51 |
| #1 Happy, happy! Joy, joy! |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2012-04-08 03:49 |